Friday, March 1, 2013

On 4th Nov. 2011, I had posted about the hijacking of a
tanker vessel MT Halifax ~ click here to read the earlier post : MT Halifax hijack

RiversState
is one of the 36 states of Nigeria.
Its capital is Port Harcourt. It is so named after the many rivers that
border its territory. Nigeria the most populous country in Africa, has attained notoriety due to rising incidences
of piracy involving its people and the locality becoming hotbed of criminal activities. This very important shipping route between the
Mediterranean sea and the Arabian sea with
tens of thousands of ship crossing the gulf annually literally became the
‘Pirate alley’. Of course they are not
alone, there many other places where pirates do operate …..

At that time it was reported that gunmen boarded the tanker
vessel MT Halifax off Port Harcourt, the main city in the oil-rich
Niger Delta. International Maritime
Bureau (IMB) was cited as stating that
the owners of the vessel lost
contact with the tanker on 30 October; and that the crew of 25 were being held
by the Pirates. Even at that time it was
hoped that crew would be released unharmed after the crude oil is stolen unlike
Somalia,
where crew and ships are held for several months for ransom.
The details of the captive vessel were:

Generally, we forget after reading about such
incidents. A follow-up revealed that the
vessel was released sooner and that the harrowing time for the owners,
operators, crew and all others interests in this particular voyage of tanker MT
Halifax did come to an end sooner.

BBC reported that the oil tanker MT Halifax that was seized
by unidentified gunmen suspected to be pirates was found on 7th Nov 2011. An official of Nigerian Maritime Administration
and Safety Agency (NIMASA),was quoted that the vessel was located off Bonny
Fairway buoy. The vessel was then escorted to Port Harcourt harbour by Nigerian Navy Patrol
Team. Though the report did not confirm
nor deny anything about the cargo i.e., the oil, it was felt that the very act
was taking away the oil and hence most likely the cargo on board could have
been transferred to some other place by the pirates.

While pirates in West Africa
have been more willing to use violence in their robberies, the string of pirate
attacks have seen crews typically let go unharmed after the crude oil is stolen
from the ships. Some Analysts believe
that many of these pirates come from Nigeria, where
corrupt law enforcement allows criminality to thrive. There is also a school of thought that hijackings of tanker ships likely is the work
of a single, sophisticated criminal gang with knowledge of the oil industry and
oil tankers. Those involved in the hijackings may have gotten that experience
in the Niger Delta, where thieves tapping pipelines running through swamps
steal hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil a day.